Page 35 of Legally Mated
Chapter28
Iwokeup to hear a low-voiced argument right next to my bed. My stomach both hurt, and didn’t, and a pleasant buzzing numbness made the world feel just an extra few inches away. I listened distractedly to them for a moment, too sleepy and weird to bother recognizing them. All I knew was that they were friendly despite the obvious antagonism between them, and then I went to sleepagain.
The next time I woke up, the room was quiet except for the breathing of someone sitting in a chair beside the head of my bed. I heard the dry scraping of a page being turned and then nothing but that quiet breathing and the occasional creak of the chair. It was nice. Restful. And I thought that I’d like to stay there, because the half-hidden shape of some unpleasant memory lurked in the borders of my mind. I was pretty sure that once I’d fully remembered it, I wouldn’t be quite socontent.
Then the chair creaked and a warm, dry hand brushed down my forearm before steps retreated to someplace farther away. Laine. I wasn’t sure how a simple touch could tell me so much, but it had. My mouth was dry, but I made what I thought was a valiant effort to sayhisname.
“Here,” came his voice, and something touched my lips, smooth and sharp at the same time, smelling ofwater.
I sipped from the straw, Lysoonka blessed wetness, no matter that it was warm and tasted vaguely of plastic and the pipes it flowed through here in the city. But it unstuck my tongue from my teeth and I was able to ask, “What happened?” My voice sounded like an old man’s and if I hadn’t been pretty sure it would hurt like a bastard, I would have winced at the creakinessofit.
“You were shot,” Laine said in a low, gentlevoice.
The cup made a dull tap off to the side and I realized I still hadn’t opened my eyes. The lids were heavy, heavy like right after finals week and too many caffeine pills, but I finally forced them to open.Lysoonka, he looks tired.I tried to reach for him, but that was apparently too much for my body and the best I could manage was a turn of my wrist and a twitch of my fingers. But Laine being Laine, he caught the movement and reached to take my handinhis.
“Take it easy, you were in surgery for a long time.” His fingers squeezed mine. He didn’t seem to need a response, which was good, because all I wanted to do was look at him and enjoy his presence, the knowledge that he’d stayed by my side and that I had another chance to makethiswork.
“Was anyone else hurt?” I asked. My voice was stronger this time, though my throat still felt rough and like it should be sore. Somewhere in the pleasant driftiness of it, I realized that this was probably painkillers and I was in for a rude awakening when theyworeoff.
“No, just you. The police got him before he could do anything else.” Laine carefully pushed my hair away from my face. “You don’trememberit?”
I started to shake my head and stopped. I didn’t want to remember it. “Maybe later.” My body felt heavy again. “You should get some rest, you look like you were dragged backwards through aburrow.”
The corner of his mouth twitched up. “I didn’t want toleaveyou.”
I squeezed his fingers in response. “Thankyou.”
He shook his head. “No, it was my fault. I keep dragging you out, pushing you in the faces of the people around me, trying to prove a point and it’s backfired on you. I’msorry.”
“My fault too, then. I let you.” And I had had better reason to know what might happen than he would, because we kept him as isolated as possible from the inner workings of the pack. I used to wonder why he never said anything about it, then came to consider that perhaps he didn’t know enough to even realize it was happening. It was a lowering thought, because it just highlighted the gulf between us, and I turned my mind to other things. “How long have I beeninhere?”
“We brought you in day beforeyesterday.”
I pursed my lips in silent whistle and squinted at him. “Did you go home at all?” He didn’t look it, except…yes, his clothes weredifferent.
“For a bit. Not long.” His face took on that hard look that I only saw in the office when he thought his client was being taken advantage of or abused. “Holland and I agreed that someone shouldstayhere.”
“Holland came?” Oh shit, now the wolf was in amongst the sheep. Not that I could have hoped to hide it; just that I would havelikedto.
Laine nodded. “I called Duke and Bram, they called him and then came to take me to the hospital. Just as well—” His voice broke off and he changed the subject with an abruptness that left me scatter-witted and confused for a moment until my sleepy brain caught up. “He brought some people from the enclave to donate blood, since you were going to have to go in to surgery. Bram donated too. Holland told me to remind him to apologize to you for that.” His brow creased, not in anger, but in amused bafflement. “I’m assuming you’ll be able to explain thereference.”
The message made my lips twitch in humor, though I was too tired to laugh outright. “There’s something of a guarded truce, or maybe a low-grade war, going on between the two of them. I think they like each other, maybe even respect each other, but it doesn’t keep them from tossing out insults left, right, and center. You might be forgiven for thinking they were brothers, the way they pick at oneanother.”
“Ah.” He said it like a man who’d just had the mystery of the universe revealed to him. “I’ll keep that in mind.” His lips curved up again. “You want another drink? Or want me to call Holland or anyone to sitwithyou?”
“Drink would be good.” Not that I was particularly thirsty, but I got the feeling that if someone else came, he might leave, and I wanted to keep him with me a little longer. So I sipped obediently at the cup of water as he held the straw to my mouth and tried to be less tired, because falling asleep on him would make the whole exercise pointless. “Thank you,” I said when I’d had enough. “Are you tired? You look tired. I can maybe move over here.” No, I probably couldn’t, but it seemed like the tension was draining out of him and the lines on his face were growing more pronounced as wetalked.
“No, I’m fine. I’ll probably go home in a bit once Holland gets here. He’s coming back for the morningshift.”
“What time is it?” Not that I cared, except that the later it was, the sooner he’d be leaving and the sooner I’d have to face myAlpha’sMate.
“Aboutsix.”
“You been here allnight?”
He nodded. “I dozed some in the chair.” His voice dragged a bit and as I watched, he lost the battle nottoyawn.
Shit, he was tired. “Go home, get some sleep. Don’t you havetowork?”
